Rise of the Darkrai follows Ash, Brock and Dawn (their companion from the current Diamond and Pearl series) as they travel to Alamos Town for a Pokemon Competition. Unfortunately, it seems like this town is in danger. When a strange pokemon named Darkrai appears, wanton destruction seems to follow. But what none of the inhabitants of Alamos Town can see is the battle waging overhead between the two legendary pokemon, Dialga and Palkia, who have the ability to control time and space.
Of course, since no one can see the battle raging above, everyone in the village believes that Darkrai is causing the problems. When the town rallies to hunt down the mysterious pokemon (led by local aristocrat Baron Alberto), they are defeated and all of the opposing pokemon fall into a deep sleep. Darkrai's ability to make the pokemon's dreams come true adds to some interesting effects, but it's up to Ash, his team and his two new friends, Alice and Tonio, to wake everyone up and stop the fighting that is tearing up the town.
Rise of Darkrai is a good addition to the long-lasting series of movies. As they all tend to do, it showcases the latest game's main legendary pokemon (Dialga and Palkia), and does a good job of getting the whole team involved (instead of just Ash, which past movies are known to do). I have to say, this is also the first movie to use the new DuArt Film dubbing studio as opposed to the TAJ Studios group that had been dealing with the show, and there is a noticeable difference. Fans probably won't be put off by this too much since they will already be used to the change since DuArt has had custody over the TV series for a couple of seasons now, but since I hadn't been following the show a lot over the past few years, I could tell the actors had changed. Either way, it is still entertaining, and while the DVD lacks any kind of special features (including a Pikachu Movie), it's still worth seeing.
